A collaborative approach to bring insights from local observations of climate change impacts into global climate change research

•Place-based research on climate change impacts can benefit global climate change science.•Qualitative data can support place-based knowledge transferability to global research.•Local observations of climate change impacts can be organized to foster dialogue with global climate change research.•Research on local observations of climate change impacts is geographically biased and not universally connected.•A coordinated community of practice is needed to bring place-based climate knowledge into global climate change research and policy agendas.